Often in fashion e-commerce, it is difficult to get to know your customers on a personal level. Establishing true relationships and connections to the people who purchase and use your products becomes more difficult when they sit behind a computer screen or a mobile phone. But lack of direct interaction with your customers in their purchasing journey doesn't mean you can't continue to form important, lasting relationships after the sale is made. Encouraging and collecting feedback from your customers will not only improve the quality of the service you provide to them in the future, but can ensure that they keep coming back for more.
The amount of data we have available to us in the online industries can almost feel overwhelming. But it's not the volume of data we have access to that's actually important - it's what kind of data it is that actually matters.
In the case of understanding fashion e-commerce customers, site stats, conversion rates, and shopping cart abandonment are of course on your radar, but customer feedback should be the gold standard. That's because it provides timely, actionable insights into what your customers are feeling, thinking, and considering when making their purchases, and their sentiments afterwards.
Often in online business, when we make assumptions about what people want and need, we wind up missing the mark. Customer feedback is more accurate, comprehensive, and takes into account qualitative data rather than only the typical numerical metrics we're used to seeing. In encouraging feedback methods in fashion e-commerce, you can gain valuable insights that allow you to more accurately target specific audiences, and understand what motivates them to buy.
If not for the crucial business insights to be garnered, use feedback as a source of customer service and loyalty motivation. Again, since online shopping loses some of the personal elements that brick-and-mortar retail offers, you need to find creative ways to ensure your customers feel appreciated.
Feedback can provide this sense to your customers, since they may feel that by providing their thoughts and opinions to you they can help improve the overall shopping experience. And most importantly, they may feel it can facilitate more personalized encounters with you in the future.
Placing emphasis on wanting to know your customer's satisfaction not only on you as a company, but on the individual products you sell, can also foster a better dialogue. This form of customer communication is elevated from the typical one-sided on-page item reviews that are industry standard.
When an item doesn't sell well, or you receive a high volume of returns for specific products, you often only have limited insights into the reasons why. Collecting more comprehensive feedback enables us to not only better understand performance of specific items, but also take action in improving offerings and even our processes for the future.
Perhaps you test having a capsule collection in limited quantities, or you trial the launch of new brand offering with limited stock. More than just knowing what performs well and what doesn't in terms of pure volume of sales, you'll want to know why. Collecting feedback can help you understand what it is about these conditions that are appealing, or unappealing to customers. You can then begin to take more accurate decisions when it comes to future collections, with less risk involved.
Alternatively, when you have more specific product feedback information, you can get a better indication of the types of styles, fits, materials, and quality that customers expect and prefer. You can then use these insights to help determine future offerings that are more likely to perform well.
But feedback shouldn't just be limited to what customers liked or disliked about their specific purchases, but should also extend to their experiences with you. Even if a customer is dissatisfied with their specific purchase, you can still retain them as customers if you provide the proper experience to them. Monitor feedback about these elements of your business closely, and adjust your processes accordingly.
With competition in fashion e-commerce high, establishing strong customer relationships is crucial. Collecting feedback is a sure way for you to better understand your customers, foster loyalty by making them feel important and cared for, and give you access to the invaluable insights that can help you to make more informed decisions about the future of your business.
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